Desert Southwest gardening can be sustainable, smart and spectacular.

Tag Archives: all gardeners make mistakes

The best gardeners learn by trial and error. If you think about it, medical and scientific discoveries occur because of experimentation. So a gardener who gets it right every time is either extremely experienced, experienced and the holder of a horticultural degree, or a liar.

And that’s why you should never give up on gardening because of a mistake or two, or several. You just learn from them and move on. Sure, some mistakes are more costly or frustrating. And some are avoidable in hindsight. Especially if you are impatient. Even more so if you are impatient and stubborn.

Here’s my latest: I have a couple of Smart Pots, which are soft, fabric containers that are lighter than pots and can be folded up for storage. I decided to grow a zucchini in my larger one, even though I knew I might be pushing the limits of the flexible pot’s size, and more importantly, the plant. Experimentation is good. Stubbornness can have negative consequences.

I’ve since thinned these three seedlings to one plant. See, who would have thought such a tiny seed would eventually grow into such a large plant? Oh, I know! Any fool who has ever grown squash before.

One of the other excellent qualities of Smart Pots is that they provide aeration for plants. In a typical hard, clay container, the roots might grow out to the side or bottom and then begin circling, looking for a place to go. This can harm the growth and health of the plant. When the roots come up against the Smart Pot edge, they can penetrate it or the pot “air prunes” the roots, helping them to form lateral branches.

One reason I placed the zucchini in the pot was so the plant would be lifted off the ground and I could reach the fruit better. I always itch reaching in to harvest or look for weeds and bugs. I’ve had no weeds with it in a container, and it’s easier to harvest the fruit. The other reason was that I could easily shift the plant’s position in my garden should I alter the plan.

I decided the zucchini was too crowded between two tomato plants and needed moving. Feeling quite brilliant for using a lightweight, mobile container, I decided I could move it myself! But I failed to take into account or simply forgot that the plant had grown large enough that the roots might have penetrated the bottom of the Smart Pot. And being impatient, mostly because it was stinking hot, I drug the pot to a new spot in the garden. I felt pretty smart myself.

In this case, the pot outsmarted the gardener. That’s because the gardener disturbed the plant’s nice, healthy roots by moving the pot without thinking.

Later than day, I made my noon visit to the garden. Immediately, I noticed that the zucchini plant’s leaves looked like they’d been beaten. It was wilting miserably. It didn’t take us long (OK, I have to give Tim credit for thinking of it first) to figure out that when I moved the pot, I broke off a few roots. Not very many had grown through, or I would have felt resistance when I moved the pot. I’m not blaming the Smart Pot; I’m blaming the impatient, absent-minded gardener who should have left well enough alone. All of those plants were doing fine until I messed with one of them, although the zucchini is way large at the top of the pot. We carried the plant into the shade of the shed (at least that was easy) and gave it a good drink of water.

The shed in the background provided overnight shelter. We have a makeshift shade cloth over the south side of the plant until further notice.

We left the plant in the shed overnight – it got airflow, but was protected from the elements and hungry critters. Then, we returned it to the garden the next day and rigged a shade cloth of sorts to help protect it from the heat until it can (hopefully) recover from my interference. So far, it’s looking better.

Lessons learned: Don’t overgarden; be patient. The plants may have grown too close together eventually, but they hadn’t yet. And read product directions, then remember them!